FirstLight Power has applied to relicense a number of exisiting hydroelectric power facilities on our portion of the CT River. Greening Greenfield does not want these licenses to allow operations for another 50 years like the last 50 have been. Read on to learn more background and see how you can Take Action.
Save the Connecticut River: New Opportunity to Speak Up on Relicensing
and we are thrilled to announce
NEW
Our Request for public meetings has been heard!
NEWER!
Current Status
As of early January 2023, another delay has been approved (see last 2 paragraphs), giving FirstLight until March 31 2023 and FERC until May 31 2023 to issue the REA notices. See LEARN MORE for a description of the process. FirstLight has submitted a "final" Flow and Fish Passage Agreement to FERC, but it is not yet published. Topics such as Erosion, Cultural Heritage, and Recreation are still being negotiated. Don't forget that the "Final" Settlement Agreement, when it comes, is only "final" for the entities who agreed to it, which does not include all Interested Parties, nor the DEP itself, nor the FERC.
FERC is now requiring updates every 2 weeks to demonstrate actual progress.
What's Next? See Take Action for what DEP has agreed to and what still needs work.
Greening Greenfield would like as many people as possible to be involved in the relicensing effort, continuing to make local voices heard about the health of our river.
Although the federal government is the ultimate licensing agency, Massachusetts has the POWER to define how our river can be used, by issuing a Water Quality Certificate. MassDEP* does not have a well-defined required process for soliciting public comment on a Water Quality Certification. In the recent past, they have simply required a public notice in the newspaper, which is easily missed, and a 20-day comment period. This is now much better than that minimum, but we need to stay on top of their proposed process and convince them to get the details right. AND it appears that according to regulations they don't control, there will still only be 20 days in the FORMAL public comment period. We have to pay attention.
FirstLight Power operates interrelated hydroelectric projects on the Connecticut River that are currently up for relicensing. These hydro projects include
- Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Facility
- The "impoundment area" - the 20 miles of CT River above the Turners Falls Dam, from Barton Cove to Vernon, VT
- Turners Falls Dam itself
- Station One - a tiny power generating plant, and
- Cabot Station
Upstream dams in VT & NH are not covered here, but we urge you to learn about other relicensing projects from other sources, such as the Connecticut River Conservancy and Great River Hydro.
Go to:
TAKE ACTION for
- Prior action successes
- A description of our new, current ACTION ITEMS: Add yourself to lists for updates, & request better communication
- Sample letters
- Names and addresses
Go to:
LEARN MORE for background information including:
- Players
- Process
- Pumped storage: purpose and problems
- $$ Two other notes on money $$
- Links to other sources of information
Greening Greenfield is currently focusing on the PROCESS of relicensing, and urges you to contact other sources for more information about the technical aspects of river flow, erosion, fish habitat, recreation, and more, including
The Connecticut River Conservancy hydro pages
Karl Meyer's Blog (link broken; seeking correction)
*Acronyms
AIP - Agreement in Principle
AFLA - Amended Final License Application
CRC - Connecticut River Conservancy
DEP or MassDEP - Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
EEA / EOEEA - Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
EIS - Environmental Impact Statement
FERC - Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
FL - FirstLight Power
FLA - Final License Application
FPA - Federal Power Act
GG - Greening Greenfield
ISO-NE - Independent Systems Operator - New England
MEPA - Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act
NRF - Naturally Routed Flow
PM&E - Protection, Mitigation, & Enhancement
REA - Ready for Environmental Analysis
TF - Turners Falls
USGS - United States Geological Survey (usually used in FirstLight documents for USGS "gage" or "gage flow")
WQC - Water Quality Certificate